David P. Billington, whose scholarship found elegance and beauty in practical works of engineering, died in Los Angeles on March 25. He was 90.

 

Billington, the Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor of Engineering Emeritus at Princeton University, pioneered the discipline of structural art, which evaluates artistic expression under the practical constraints of engineering. His work inspired a generation of scholars and redefined the consideration of great engineering works from bridges to buildings.